Omar Amiralay

Omar Amiralay was born in Damascus on 20 October 1944. He studied in Paris at Théâtre de la Ville between 1966–7 and later at La Fémis, before returning to Syria in 1970. He thus had a different artistic formation from the majority of Syrian film-makers, who studied in the Soviet Union or in Eastern Europe. His films include a trilogy of documentaries concerning the Tabqa Dam on the Euphrates. The first, Film Essay on the Euphrates Dam (1970), is a tribute to Syria's greatest development project, but the second and third take a more critical approach. Everyday Life in a Syrian Village (1974) shows the dam's ambiguous impact on the lives of ordinary people in a nearby village, and portrays their relationship with the authorities, seen as distant and disconnected from them. Amiralay revisited the region in 2003 with A Flood in Baath Country, which contains trenchant political criticism (it had the working title Fifteen reasons why I hate the Baath Party). Due to the films strong indictment of the government, the film was removed from the Carthage Film Festival. In act of solidarity with Amiralay, Arab filmmakers Yousry Nasrallah, Annemarie Jacir, Nizar Hassan, Joana and Khalil Joreige, and Danielle Arbid subsequently pulled their films out of Competition to protest the festival's actions. As a result, A Flood in Baath Country was re-programmed and screened to enthusiastic crowds. Another notable film was There Are So Many Things Still to Say, based on interviews with the Syrian playwright Saadallah Wannous recorded while the latter was dying of cancer. The film juxtaposes Wannous' remarks with scenes from Syria's wars against Israel and the Palestinian First Intifada, as the playwright recounts, with some regret for the lost opportunities that resulted, how the Palestinian struggle became a central part of intellectual life for an entire generation. His other films include a portrait of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, The Man with the Golden Soles, co-directed with Hala Al-Abdallah Yacoub and one of French academic and student of Middle Eastern society Michel Seurat, who died in Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, On a Day of Ordinary Violence, My Friend Michel Seurat... . Omar Amiralay died on 5 February 2011, either from cardiac arrest or a cerebral thrombosis. In her film Omar Amiralay - Sorrow, Time and Silence (2021), Hala Al-Abdallah Yacoub features private moments of her discussions with Omar before his death, a unique testimony of his life.